There has been a strong effort here in Syracuse to educate women about the vital importance of good nutrition when they are pregnant. Nutrition is appreciated as the single most important factor in healthy human development by health conscious people. And so a recent study linking junk food junkie mothers to the creation of junk food junkie babies has raised awareness here in Syracuse of the importance of good nutrition for pregnant women.
Eurekalert has reported "'Junk food' moms have 'junk food' babies", http://bit.ly/dM06WV. This report in Eurekalert has been based on a research article in The Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Journal, http://bit.ly/glIzt0. This study suggests that pregnant mothers who eat high sugar and high fat diets have babies who are likely to become junk food junkies themselves. And so more and more pregnant women here in Syracuse should want to spend more of their money on healthy wheat breads, fruits, vegetables and fish when shopping for the family at Wegmans, http://www.wegmans.com.
This study which was done on rats suggests that the high fat and high sugar diet leads to changes in the fetal brain's reward pathway which alters food preferences. This offers insight into the ever-increasing rate of human obesity and also explains why some people easily resist fatty and sugary foods, while others seem hopelessly addicted. Caring mothers to be here in Syracuse who do not want their babies hopelessly addicted to fattty and sugary foods should therefore choose to order more salads and fish dishes when dining out with the family at Dennys instead of ordering sundaes and pies, http://bit.ly/ePr95Q.
Beverly Muhlhausler, Ph.D., co-author of the study from the FOODplus Research Centre in the School of Agriculture Food and Wine at the University of Adelaide in Adelaide, Australia has said "These results will help us to better help women about diet during pregnancy and breastfeeding for giving their infants the best start in life," http://bit.ly/fnMnmx.
For this study Muhlhausler and colleagues studied two groups of rats, which during pregnancy and lactation, were either fed standard "rat chow" or a junk food diet made up of a selection of common human foods high in fat and high in sugar. Than after the new baby rats were weaned, the pups from both groups were allowed to select their own diets from either the same range of junk food or from the standard rat chow.
The brains from some of the pup rats also were collected at different times after birth and measured for the levels of the "feel good" chemicals (dopamine and opioids) and the receptors that these chemicals act upon. These scientists discovered that the group of rats whose mothers had eaten the junk food diet had higher levels of the receptor for opioids after they were weaned. Also, this group chose to eat more of the fatty foods as compared to the pups whose mothers ate the standard rat chow. These findings suggest that infants whose mothers eat excessive amounts of high-fat, high-sugar junk foods when pregnant or breastfeeding are likely to have a greater preference for these foods later in life.
Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal, has commented "How ironic that your mother nags you to eat your fruits and vegetables, but it could have been her actions that helped you to prefer junk food! Perhaps in the future, studies like these will convince pregnant moms to go heavier on the green vegetables and a little lighter on the ice cream and Twinkies." In the best interest of the health of moms and their kids alike it is hoped women here in Syracuse and elsewhere will learn some valuable lessons about good nutrition from this study.
Photographer: nuchylee
